127 hours later, still without power and need some advice

Hey, I live in southwestern ct(Monroe) and been without power since Sunday morning, but luckily I bought a generator last year, so I've been dealing with it but not without some mistakes. I've kept the essentials running on my tank such as heat, flow, and lighting but wanted to bring additional equipment back up such as my ATO, sump, and maybe a filter.


I want to get my sump back up and running first but since it's been 5 days I'm not sure if the water would be safe? Tank is trumping fridge now for the electricity so I'll be able to run a lot more. On top of that, I put a heater in the sump to prep it last night to get it ready for use(it was sitting around 70 degrees), but apparently the heater broke and awoke to find the sump temp @ 90 degrees! Luckily I only have equipment in there, but is the water bad after all of the above of going through cold then hot spells? I could probably pump it out, but I'd rather not if not necessary.

One other concern I had was I can't run my generator 24/7, so there's been some temperature swing, but I've kept it between 76 and 80 degrees. I know it's not good for the fish, but is this going to cause permanent damage or can they take such a swing over 5-6 hours?

I don't have much experience in such a situation so was wondering if anyone could provide some insight. Thank you in advance!

 

I would replace the water

Temp swings are not great but usually fish can tolerate them. Why so high though? a swing from 73-78 would be better

 

no power for me from 1 day brought my tank up to 85*. water changes are a must.

 

Really you think 73-78 would be better? I've usually err on never going below 75, but that is interesting. I have a flame angel, scopas tang, some cleaner shrimp, clown fish, and damsels in a 90 gal tank, so with only 5 fish I'm not overly concerned about the water getting that dirty as long I get power back on by Monday. I also have a 4 inch DSB and 120lbs of live rock so the living filtration is pretty good in the tank. So dump the water from the sump so far =/, stinks no fun making water in the dark, maybe I'll wait till Saturday morning.

 

does the sump have a fuge with DSB in it? if so I would be cautious about bringing that back on line, due to lack of oxygenation/ and absence of nutrients in there for 5 days, which may have caused a lot of die off and thus give you ammonia and or oxygen issues in the DT when water starts flowing through again

if the above is the case, I would take the fuge, DSB off line, and replace the water and allow it to cycle/ mature again off line before connecting it to the DT.

if its just water, then the fact its been idle for a few days will not be to much of an issue
aside from lower dissolved oxygen levels, which you can fix before putting it back on line, by using an independent power head to churn up the water in there for a day or so

Steve

 

does the sump have a fuge with DSB in it? if so I would be cautious about bringing that back on line, due to lack of oxygenation/ and absence of nutrients in there for 5 days, which may have caused a lot of die off and thus give you ammonia and or oxygen issues in the DT when water starts flowing through again

if the above is the case, I would take the fuge, DSB off line, and replace the water and allow it to cycle/ mature again off line before connecting it to the DT.

if its just water, then the fact its been idle for a few days will not be to much of an issue
aside from lower dissolved oxygen levels, which you can fix before putting it back on line, by using an independent power head to churn up the water in there for a day or so

Steve

 

The sump has no sand bed, just equipment and one 5lb live rock. The temp in there is sitting at 78 with another heater (and my gf said I was crazy to have 5 back up heaters lol). Still going to wait on some more responses but yeah I'm going to start getting the oxygen up in there with an air pump. If I have to remove some water, I'll do it and get it back online by Saturday.

 

Read this. Very helpful info as to what to do in your case. Also it gives instructions to use the last resort...hydrogen peroxide! Good Luck.
Hurricane

 

Oh man, sorry to hear that. I think it sounds like a good plan. If there isn't anything living in it, the water should be okay and there shouldn't be anything to deplete the oxygen. I would probably remove the liverock though, there could be some die-off. Just re-cure it in a bucket or something, then put it back in a month or so.

 

Thanks for the replies. I contacted the power company and they said by Wednesday 11pm next week we'll have power. This is ridiculous. I'm afraid my portable generator will not last that long and will have to feed more fish more before then clearly. So frustrating. Hopefully I'll be able to restore my sump tomorrow.